What a shocker. David Stern finally concedes that those new balls, which were never even tested on the players and which all the players complained about, are bollocks after all. Thus, an addendum to the reality TV discussion below:
Pro sports are fundamentally about a dialectic between outsize player personalities and the (presumed) desire of the viewer to see such personalities forced to obey. This push-and-pull is built into sport as part of the entertainment. This is periodically borne out in other sports (such as the Terrell Owens controversy in Philadelphia), but is an absolute constant in basketball (in which, because of the requisite uniforms, players' appearances and literal flesh are most visible), where it becomes a thinly veiled discourse on race. "Overpaid" (i.e. black person who should be grateful for the opportunity to receive such a salary) player acts "selfishly" (either in doing something unknowingly destructive or knowingly self-interested, which is understandable when such money is at stake in a business) towards his team, and then must be punished (humiliated). This is a crucial narrative that Stern invokes repeatedly throughout each NBA season.
The failure of the new balls is an example of the discourse cracking; that is, it didn't produce its intended entertaining effect. For the entertainment to work, basketball fans have to buy that there is an actual code of ethics in sports that white managers such as Stern are responsible for enforcing over black players. Thus for the publicity event of the new balls to have fully succeeded, the players would have had to complain, as they did, and then ultimately take their lumps and shut up about it. Not only did this not happen, but it became apparent that the ball is so defective that it is causing injuries-- albeit minor ones-- even to beloved white everyman point guard and league MVP Steve Nash, who has been photographed with the cuts on his fingers pathetically bandaged. Awww. No more ball.
2 comments:
I think you overstate a little the racial discourse in the NBA as far as management/player interactions. The NBA is by far the most integrated professional sports league as far as management is concerned and is far more integrated than the regular American workplace. To assume that these same black managers are playing their own against the crowd is a little far fetched. The other alternative, assuming that David Stern is in fact a dictator over those same black managers presumes too much about Stern's power (ala the Sports Guy) or too little about his black associates, unfairly transforming Stu Jackson and others into simple yes-men. I agree whole heartedly that the press plays the racial discourse with the fans - this is one of the more reprehensible areas of sports journalism. Journalists invariably rely on the blackness of the league to bail them out when they can't think of anything else to write about. I think that in this instance at least as regards the league/player relationship, the league just made a huge mistake but I don't they're playing a racial discourse - its the press.
You are absolutely correct that this discourse is mediated by the press. But as for the black managers you mention, my understanding has been that in truth there are relatively few in the league (blacks in upper-management positions). In either case David Stern, mediated by the press or not, more often than not comes off like this strange sort of dictator-- and very much the restorer of "order" that he clearly seeks to be-- lording over the league. All this makes his recent decision to change back to the old balls in January a significant defeat. It speaks to your observation about the press's role that Jason Kidd and Steve Nash (two of the lighter prominent players in the league) are mentioned over and over again as the catalysts for the ball change (in opposition to the black complainers such as Shaq, Kobe, etc., who were quoted but not initially taken seriously by the league or the press).
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